1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to food products and, more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for preparing a rising crust from a sheet of dough.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Originally, pizza pies were made by hand. With the increasing demand, various devices have been developed to allow a pizza to be made in large-scale production assemblies, frozen or freeze-dried before packaging, and shipped to grocers nationwide.
In large scale, commercial bakeries, pizza crusts are typically formed in a press comprising a die that can be operated to apply pressure onto a dough ball to flatten the dough ball into a circular, square or rectangular sheet of dough. Cavities can be defined in the die to form corresponding raised ridges in the dough.
While high volume pizza processing machines allow for the formation of a raised ridge around the outer peripheral edge of a pizza pie, they suffer from several drawbacks. Often the so formed industrial crust will have a poor flavor and taste as compared to a hand-made pizza crust. Unlike hand-made dough pizza, the peripheral ridge of dough formed by pressing will often not raise during the baking process.
There is therefore a need for a new high volume processing method and apparatus for use in the preparation of rising crust pizzas.